As I said in last year's entry, I always worry when this time of the year arrives. Would Amazon discontinue the Kindle? Would they be lured by the Dark Side and embrace tablets at the cost of E Ink devices? Would Amazon continue to take reading (and not reading+music+internet+Angry Birds!) seriously? Fortunately, the answer is yes, and in late October 2013 they announced the 2nd version of the Kindle Paperwhite. Here's what's new.

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As we can see from the table, last year's Pearl and this year's Carta E Ink screens are mostly similar. The big difference is the 3rd and 4th lines of the table. Contrast ratio, the thing that makes print pages look really good, has been improved yet again!

New 2013 features Apart from the hardware, the software has been evolving continuously. The first two features below are VERY exciting! (For owners of Paperwhite version 1, these features will most definitely be available in a future software update.)

New Kindle FreeTime—Built-in parental controls have been extended to give parents a simple, engaging way to encourage kids to spend more time reading. Hand-select books for your kids to read, and hand out achievement badges when they hit reading milestones. A progress report keeps parents updated on total time spent reading, number of words looked up, badges earned and books finished.

New Vocabulary Builder—Compiles words you look up in the dictionary into an easy-to-access list. Use these lists to quiz yourself with flashcards and instantly see words in context. See screenshots:

New Smart Lookup—Integrates a full dictionary definition with other reference information about a word, character, topic or book via X-Ray and Wikipedia. For example, using an ordinary dictionary to look up “credit default swaps” in Michael Lewis’ The Big Short would give the individual definitions of “credit,” “default” and “swaps.” Smart Lookup recognizes this is an important topic and phrase in the book, and gives you the correct definition of “credit default swaps” via X-Ray. See a screenshot: www.amazon.com/kindle-lookup.

New In-line Footnotes—With a single tap, read the complete text of each footnote in-line without changing the page or losing your place in the book. See a screenshot: www.amazon.com/kindle-footnotes.

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How to buy a Kindle in Singapore

Summary: Buy from Amazon, who will ship to your forwarder, who will ship to you. Turnaround: around 14 days.

Go to the Kindle page buy yourself a Kindle. (You can use your local credit card with correct local billing address to do this. You don't need a VPN and don't need to use gift cards.)

The new Kindle will be automatically linked to your Amazon account.

Ship it to a third party mail forwarder. Borderlinx (Citibank credit card required, go to 'get a virtual address') and Comgateway (go to 'get my US address') are both excellent. They both use DHL to ship packages to Singapore. DHL is extremely reliable and fast; they even deliver on Sundays!

When you get your Kindle, you need to register it if it hasn't already been registered. After connecting to wifi at "home>settings", register it by filling in your Amazon username and password at "home>settings>register".

Some preparatory steps to take before buying eBooks from the Amazon US store

Summary: Use a VPN and prepare your Amazon account. Buy gift card and send to yourself.

Because Amazon doesn't officially support Kindles in Singapore, there were instances where buyers were found to be not from 'authorised countries' and were asked to provide proof of US residency before they could buy books again. The probability of this happening is very low. To be totally safe, use a vpn described below.

Firstly, do not buy Amazon ebooks directly from your Kindle device or Kindle apps, not even free books.

Buy a gift card with your local credit card, say USD50. Use the correct, local billing address for this purchase. Email the gift card to your email address. When you receive it in the mail, apply the gift amount to your Amazon account.

Go to your account, 'manage payment options', and erase your credit card info if you have any credit cards associated with Amazon.com . (Do this also whenever you buy something at Amazon using your local credit card.)

You need to buy books using your Internet browser on your computer with a VPN installed. Functionally, using a VPN is the equivalent of me giving you an airplane ticket to travel with your Kindle to the US. Use a VPN such as Private Tunnel to make yourself situated in the US, in spirit. You may turn it off later when you're done purchasing. Click here to download some instructions. The cheapest VPN package can last you for years. Do not use Hotspot Shield; it's known not to work sometimes.

Go to Amazon. Find your book and click 'buy now with 1-click', 'deliver to your Kindle'. If you choose to wirelessly send it to your Kindle, you should receive the book in a few seconds. You can also choose to download the file and transfer it to your Kindle using USB. If asked for the billing address, use any US address. Note that this address will not be used because funds will originate from your gift card balance. New: Copy or do a screenshot of this information (the US billing address and telephone number that you used.) You may be asked for it in the future.

Switch off the VPN.

Some Kindle books I've bought to be read on the E Ink Kindle and Kindle for iPad.

Anon, the situation for magazines is quite different. The payment system doesn't allow gift cards and it needs an actual US credit card. I use usunlocked.com for this purpose but there's a 5% fee or thereabouts fee for its use.

Is it ok to buy the kindle and ebooks from my regular amazon account? I've had my account for a long time and don't want to risk getting my account shut down. I may be interested in the new Matchbook and need my book buying history with amazon for that. Will they get suspicious if my history shows I have been shipping orders to Singapore, or if, after I get the kindle, I use the same account to both order ebooks with a VPN, and to ship other orders to Singapore?

We are writing because the home country registered to your Kindle account may not match your country of residence. Due to publishing rights, the home country registered to your account must match your country of residence.

To continue purchasing titles available for the United States, please send a copy of your valid government-issued identity card, passport, or a utility bill received within the previous 90 days to our secure fax line:

Within the US: 206-266-1838Outside the US: (00)1-206-266-1838

For your security, you may obscure the passport, ID, or account number. However, we ask that you do not obscure any portion of your name, your address, or any expiration or statement dates.

Your fax will be converted to a secure electronic image that will never be printed. Once we have completed the verification process, we will delete the image.

If you have moved to a different country, you can update your home country in the Manage Your Kindle section of your Amazon account (www.amazon.com/manageyourkindle):

The Kindle app is not available in the Singapore iTunes store. It's available however in the US iTunes store. So you need to sign up for a US iTunes account. I don't remember whether you need a US credit card for this purpose; maybe not. If you do, you can sign up for one at www.usunlocked.com .

Hi JeffStumbled onto your blog- very useful. Thanks !Bought paperweight for daughter. She was happily downloading the e books then the home wireless ip (Singapore ) got discovered. Now cannot purchase anymore. "items could not be purchased.You have attempted to purchase an item while in a different country than listed on your amazon account"Is there a way of resetting? What should I do? Any advise? Thanks Sam

Hi Jeff, Great and useful post, thanks! Just wondering, are you familiar with the Japanese version of kindle paperwhite? Is seems much cheaper. Any idea what's the difference between the US and the Jap version?

Anon, the Japanese has double the space for books (probably for comics as it's a big market there.) This is perhaps irrelevant as most of us I reckon don't even use a tiny fraction of space for our books on the US sets.

The other issue is more 'serious' in that the Japanese version's serial number is tagged to the Japanese store. So if you have an issue and want to repair it etc., you probably can't talk to US support; you need to speak Japanese with the Japanese support staff instead.

I'm thinking of ordering a paperwhite from Amazon. I set up an account with Comgateway and got my local address in the US. My question is, once they receive my paperwhite, I have to choose the size of the box to ship it to Singapore right? If so, what size is a good size? I'm only planning to order the paperwhite itself and nothing else like the cover or spare adapters.

One more question, when you choose to ship from Comgateway to yourself in Singapore, you pay for the shipping charge, but it also mentions fuel surcharge and insurance. Are fuel surcharge and insurance included in the shipping cost?

So I ordered my Kindle last Tuesday and chose free shipping. The approximate delivery date is given as yesterday to next week Tuesday, and it still hasn't been shipped. Should I be worried? CGW's warehouse is in Portland, which I guess isn't far away from Seattle but don't know why it's taking them so long to ship it?

Is it possible to purchase from both amazon uk and Amazon us? I am thinking of purchasing a paper white for my kid. I realized that amazon us does not sell her her favorite author's (Enid Blyton) books but the uk one does.

Do I have to register and de- register my kindle and change my country settings each time I want to buy from either stores?

Just received my Kindle Paperwhite and it's amazing! I chose free shipping to CGW, which took about 10 7 days for them to ship it, and then it took about 1-2 days to get to the CGW warehouse. From the CGW warehouse I chose express shipping and it took exactly 4 days to get here, amazingly fast and I am totally satisfied. Now it's time I order that cover from your website, thanks a lot for this website, it really helped me a lot.

Noel, I've no idea about DNS services that's related to the wifi. From the Kindle' point of view, the only thing that you can specify is your wifi router's password. Look here: http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=201301570

I don't really recommend buying direct from the Kindle as doing it on a computer is so much more comfortable (from a screen size point of view.)

Liz, technically it's possible but you need to deregister out of the US store, log into the UK store and vice versa. (Once a book is in your Kindle there's no need to do anything further.) And you may also need a UK VPN.

Anon, thanks for the info, good to see the numbers you provide are still very good...

So I signed up with AlwaysVPN, whenever it connects it shows that I'm not connected to the AlwaysVPN network. But, when I go to showip.net, it shows a different IP address and shows that I'm in the US. What should I do? I have tried compatible connect and faster connect and I get the same results.

Hi jeff,Jus wondering, won't switching on wirelessly cause you to be detected by amazon your actual location? Cause u did mention that in your topic "How to buy eBooks from the Amazon US store" about downloading wirelessly to your kindle. I am too scared to switch on my kindle wirelessly, fear that they'll detect me. But I have a habit of buying a few books at a time and downloading them wirelessly would be a huge plus point.

I have heed your advise to have registered with Borderlinx and AlwaysVPN, and purchased gift card which has been sent to my Amazon.com account.

Under your last section of "How to buy eBooks from the Amazon US store", at your last second point where you said to include any US address as "Billing Address" for buying books with gift cards.

Question: Can I use the same US forwarding address provided to me by Borderlinx? If I do, then both my shipping and billing address will be identical. Will that be a problem? Will it create any suspicion on Amazon side? Otherwise can please advise me?

Hi Jeff, I have both the english and chinese dictionary in my PW Gen1. It was working for awhile. But after one kindle update somehow the device was corrupted/confsed. My english dictionary definition no longer works. Only the chinese-english dictionary does. Have you encountered this problem?

Anon, theoretically it can work and others have tried this before. Whether you need a UK vpn is another question. There's no need to do that unless you really can't find the book you want in the US store.

hi jeff,I'm learning japanese and wish to read more japanese novel/book and kindle got the dictionary feature that really useful. If i got a kindle, how should i go about buying from amazon japan? do i need a jap set or any version will do? Regards, SAM

Anon, I have not tried it yet, but I suspect you need a vpn that gives you a Japanese IP address. From what I remember you don't need the Japanese set to read Japanese.

http://www.perapera.org/kindle-paperwhite-godsend-japanese-learners/

If you want to get the Japanese set from local importers, do note that tech support/exchanges are not practical as the US store won't honour tech support claims for a Japanese set. If you are fine with that, you're good to go. But you *may* need a vpn.

Been reading through and reading up and contemplating on choosing between get Kindle PW (US) and Japan. One has more space than the other, but I also read somewhere that the Japanese model's warranty wouldn't offer hardware assistance should any cropped up.

Also, read somewhere that there is a rumour that PW3 might just be coming up.

The space is irrelevant as you will never even get close to the limit. The real difference is the support (or lack of it) if you actually have access to the Japanese set. If you can live with the risk, sure, get the Japanese set.

Amazon routinely announces a new model around September. There's really no reason to wait as the current model is quite flawless.

Have you tried buying Preorder ebooks? When purchasing Preorder books, after clicking the Preorder button, they are asking you to key in the Credit Card (CC) number. Seeing this, I aborted the purchase.

Do you or anyone else has experience on this?

I am assuming that you can key in the CC (perhaps also the Billing Address which they normally ask for whenever they require the CC in a normal purchase), but eventually they will deduct from the giftcard.

Therefore, they are no issues with the purchase if we proceed to provide the CC information?

1)After purchasing the gift card, can i send it to the email account I registered at Amazon(the one I paid the gift card for)? Since it seems that it ll be a deadgiveaway when I apply the giftcard to my Amazon account

2)Go to your account, 'manage payment options', and erase your credit card info if you have any credit cards associated with Amazon.com . (Do this also whenever you buy something at Amazon using your local credit card.) --> Does this means I have to erase my credit card info from the account(from which I bought Kindle) whenever I pay for my ebooks even if I am using VPN?

Also, Can i buy ebooks with the same Amazon account that I bought my Kindle, as long as the credit card info is erased?

I am living in Taiwan now and thinking of ordering the Kindle. It can be delivered to Taiwan and I assume no problem with the download/ buying of ebooks etc.

What I concern, and I am not sure if you can assist, is when I move back to Singapore. Will I be able to continue to purchase/ download the ebooks or would I be declined, and have to start the VPN/ gift voucher method? I am also wondering if all my previous purchases will be wipe out.

Until now I had been using my Amazon US account while being resident in another country and using that country's credit card. To be honest, as it worked I didnt think anything about it. Recently, though, I received an email from Amazon asking me to verify my US residency with id, which of course I cannot do. They stated that if I continued to purchase through the Amazon US account without verifying my US residency they would restrict my Amazon US account. Whatever that means.

What should I do? How does Amazon know where you're ordering from? Do they just check against your credit card, or do they check IP address too (hence need for VPN)? If I was to use your method here, wouldnt they restrict my account even if I used gift cards because they've already caught me and asked for residency check before the account is useable again?

Jimmy, the simple answer is that Amazon doesn't ship Kindles direct to Singapore. You can try this by adding a Kindle to your shopping cart and shipping it to a local address. The order will not go through.

Am thinking of purchasing a Kindle Ppaerwhite 2013, and would like to check if I could use the methods as you described to subscribe to Kindle Unlimited, i.e. US$9.99 per month? Will the procedures be any different from purchasing ebooks ad hoc?

Hi Jeffrey, I am receiving the same email from Amazon like the others on the home country registered to my kindle account does not match country of residence. As you suggested, we should buy ebooks using gift card thru Vpn. If I do that, Will the book I buy link to my kindle and download it automatically? Currently, I am buying books in Amazon using my iPad safari app and after one clicked buy, it automatically linked and download the books in my kindle. Is there any wa I can still do the same approach?Thanks

Anon, yes, the book will appear in your kindle if your kindle's wifi is switched on. (You can switch it off once you're done.)

Unless you can get a vpn working on your iPad working, you should use your computer+vpn instead as described in my workflow. Once you are able to buy a book, reading it on your iPad kindle app is trivial.

Hi JeffNeed your advise. I'm thinking of getting a HD fire Kids for my children from Amazon and they have unlimited free time downloadDo you know if I would still be able to download from Singapore? Many thanks!

Hi Jeff.I have been buying kindle ebooks from Amazon for over a year now, using a local debit card but by having my mail forwarder's US address in my account. No prob so far. And I have been reading those books on my desktop via the Kindle Cloud Reader. I recently got a Kindle Paperwhite. Would like to ask you:1. Is it safe for me to deliver/download those books that I already purchased from 'CLoud' to 'Device' within my Kindle itself (wifi connected)?2. Is it ok to deliver/download and then USB transfer them from desktop to my kindle without connecting to VPN? Or still need to use VPN?